This is an activities Blog for Doug and Jacquelyn Swift and our loving family.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Ancient Japan

The last post had missionary related photos about our trip to Japan. This one will have pictures of the ancient cultural things we saw. We did lots and lots and lots of walking and it was very very hot and humid, so the first picture is of this public foot bath Brother Yamada took us too at the end of the first day. The water was so hot you couldn't hardly put your feet in, but it sure felt good.

Famous Osaka Castle. I really liked the castle but I think everyone else liked the shrines and temples better.

The castle was surrounded by a large moat and the walls were made of huge stones.

This is the inner fortress of the castle. Looks sort of like a home.

We found Samurai warriors out front. They were in charge of litter and instead of swords had sticks to pick up trash and stuff on the grounds.

Isaac in front of some ornate decorations that have been preserved.

We saw a Kendo school and peaked in the windows. Then we took pictures through the window.

The warriors are assembling to fight. And they were only about ten years old, boys and girls.

Let the fight begin.

Little geisha girl.

Caleb with a stone dog guarding a temple.

Jacquelyn in front of a picture of a feudal lord.

Lots of the temples had ropes you could pull to wake up the gods.

An old time street in Kyoto.

We saw lots of beautiful Japanese gardens. This one was at the silver temple.

We saw the largest Pagoda in Japan.

We climbed tons of steps going up and down these temple grounds.

A stone fox guard.

Isaac in front of a shrine.

Tianna with a Japanese lantern.

The golden temple, supposedly the prettiest temple in Japan. It actually is covered in real gold.

They had these fountains at the temples. You had to go through a little ceremony, first cup full washes one hand, second cup full washes the second hand. Then the third cup full you can pour into your hands and drink.

We saw several Buddha shrines.

Jacquelyn with a deer in the park. I dropped my plastic sack of things I was carrying while taking this picture and it immediately charged me and grabbed the sack in it's mouth and started eating the plastic. We had quite some excitement getting the sack away from it. I grabbed the horns and everyone else was grabbing at the sack. We finally got it away from the deer, but not before it ate some of the plastic.

Shrine at Nara where the largest indoor Buddha is the world is inside this building. My batteries ran out so you'll have to look at Tianna's pictures to see the Buddha. He is scary looking, not nice at all.

A little shrine on an island in the middle of a lake.

Mt. Fuji, which we were determined to climb, which might not of been the smartest thing to do.

At the beginning the trail was nice and easy.

Then it got hard. I got altitude sickness and almost didn't make it. It was extremely hard for me. Then I felt great going down. We made it, even if it almost killed me.

In Tokyo we saw some drummers. Their marching bands are a little different from the ones we have back here.

We also saw a wagon in the streets on Sunday for a festival. One of the members at church said you can see evidence of ancient Israel in the symbolism. They are carrying around the arc and the covenant from ancient Israel. He believes the Japanese are descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes.

I just really liked this chandelier. Wouldn't one of these look nice in front of our house?

We saw lots of Koi and turtles in the ponds and rivers in the parks.

This is at Naritasan Temple and Gardens. We went there twice since the first time we got there it was too dark to see much.

I think this was Jacquelyn's favorite place. The gardens especially were beautiful.

Some more statues there.

A Japanese family was feeding the turtles and Koi so we joined them.

Japan has a long and ancient history. It was interesting to see.

Isaac's shoes at the end of his mission. Mom had to buy some glue to get the soles to stay up so we could finish this last week and I think this was his fourth pair.